Project GUESSS

Global University Entrepreneurial Spirit Students‘ Survey

GUESSS stands for Global University Entrepreneurial Spirit Students‘ Survey. GUESSS is a research project about the context of Entrepreneurship. Its purpose is to grasp the entrepreneurial intent and activity of students using a geographical and temporal comparison. Data is gathered using an on-line survey through participating universities. The first survey wave took place in year 2003 and the data are collected with a two-year frequency. The eighth data collection was performed in late 2018 in 54 countries around the world. More than 3000 universities have been involved in it and more than 208 thousand students’ replies were gathered.

Project Goals

GUESSS represents an entrepreneurship research platform. It focuses on three main goals – the process of creating start-ups, the role of universities and the individual characteristics of the students. GUESSS helps to systematically record the founding intention and activity of students on a long-term basis, and makes a temporal and geographical comparison possible (panel study). GUESSS offers a temporal and geographical comparison providing universities with insight into the organization of entrepreneurship (e.g. in the form of entrepreneurship courses, founding climate, infrastructure, etc.). GUESSS allows for a temporal and geographical comparison of individual-based characteristics that impact the founding intention and activity of students.

Comenius University in Bratislava, Faculty of Management is the country delegate for the GUESSS project in Slovakia. Data collection among the Slovak university students will take place in May and June 2016. The project lead of GUESSS is in the hands of the Swiss Institute for Small Business and Entrepreneurship at the University of St. Gallen (KMU-HSG) in Switzerland. The responsible project manager is Dr. Philipp Sieger.

GUESSS Slovakia Publications

Holienka, M. (2018). Podnikanie: Podnikavosť, tvorba a rozvoj podnikateľských nápadov a príležitostí. Bratislava: Univerzita Komenského v Bratislave.

Holienka, M., Gál, P. a Pilková, A. (2018). Podnikanie študentov na Slovensku. Pohľad projektu GUESSS 2016. Bratislava: Univerzita Komenského v Bratislave, Fakulta managementu.

Holienka, M., Gál, P. a Pilková, A. (2018). Student Entrepreneuship in Slovakia. A GUESSS 2016 perspective. (Slovak orig. „Podnikanie študentov na Slovensku. Pohľad projektu GUESSS 2016“). Bratislava: Univerzita Komenského v Bratislave, Fakulta managementu. Publication in Slovak language, contains Executive Summary in English.

Holienka M., Gál P. a Kovačičová Z. (2017). Understanding Student Entrepreneurs: Doers, Procrastinators, Dreamers and Abstainers. In Acta Universitatis Agriculturae et Silviculturae Mendelianae Brunensis, 65(6): 1935-1944. https://doi.org/10.11118/actaun201765061935. Link: https://acta.mendelu.cz/65/6/1935/

Holienka M., Gál P. a Kovačičová Z. (2017). Drivers of Student Entrepreneurship in Visegrad Four Countries: GUESSS Evidence. In Central European Business Review, 6(2): 54-63. DOI: 10.18267/j.cebr.180. Link: https://cebr.vse.cz/pdfs/cbr/2017/02/06.pdf

Holienka M., Gál P. a Kovačičová Z. (2017). What drives student entrepreneurs? GUESSS evidence from V4 countries. Innovation, management, entrepreneurship and corporate sustainability (IMES 2017): Proceedings of the 5th international conference. Praha: Vysoká škola ekonomická v Praze, 2017. S. 304-313. Link: http://imes.vse.cz/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Conference_Proceedings_IMES_2017.pdf

Holienka M., Gál P. a Kovačičová Z. (2017). Student entrepreneurs: doers, procrastinators, and dreamers. In Enterprise and Competitive Environment: 20th Annual International Conference. Brno: Mendel University, 2017. S. 326-336. Link: https://ece.pefka.mendelu.cz/sites/default/files/imce/ECE2017_fin.pdf

Principal investigator:
Assoc. Prof. PhDr. Marian Holienka, PhD.

Investigators:
Prof. Ing. Anna Pilková, PhD., MBA
Mgr. Peter Gál, PhD.

Official project’s web page: www.guesssurvey.org

GUESS project partner in Slovakia

EY, partner of this survey, is a global leader in assurance, tax, transaction and advisory services. The EY Entrepreneur Of The Year award, the world’s most prestigious for business, recognizes outstanding individuals.

Its aim is to present to the general public exceptional business figures, whose success stories may inspire young, budding entrepreneurs. For more information, please visit www.ey.com and www.podnikatelroka.sk.